. . . for the most part the worst instructed, and the least knowing of any of their rank, I ever went amongst.

An anecdote is related of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683), who, in speaking of religion, said, People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion. To the inquiry of What religion? the Earl said, Men of sense never tell it.

...learning chiefly in mathematical sciences can so swallow up and fix one's thought, as to possess it entirely for some time but when that amusement is over, nature will return, and be where it was, being rather diverted than overcome by such speculations.

The law of England is the greatest grievance of the nation, very expensive and dilatory.

One of the strangest catastrophes that is in any history. A great king, with strong armies and mighty fleets, a great treasure and powerful allies, fell all at once, and his whole strength, like a spider's web, was... irrecoverably broken at a touch.